Lane Kiffin may have left Ole Miss for LSU, but he’s still finding ways to stir things up in Oxford-and not in the way you'd expect from a coach who just led a program to its first-ever College Football Playoff. On Wednesday night, Kiffin took to social media and added fuel to an already tense situation involving former Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, whose college football future now hangs in the balance.
It started with a tweet from Chambliss’s attorney, Tom Mars, who posted a screenshot of Pittsboro, Mississippi’s Wikipedia page-population 202-and a photo of the town’s modest post office. Mars sarcastically captioned it as one of the “wonderful places you get to visit” as a trial lawyer.
Kiffin retweeted the post, adding a crying-laughing emoji for good measure. That’s right-just hours after the NCAA denied Chambliss’s appeal for a sixth year of eligibility, his former head coach was online poking fun at the small-town courthouse where Chambliss’s next legal battle will unfold.
To say Ole Miss fans didn’t take it well would be putting it mildly. The reaction was swift and emotional, with replies ranging from disbelief to outright fury.
One fan called out Kiffin’s obsession with his former team: “You’re making $13.5 million and this is like your 4th post about Ole Miss today.” Another didn’t hold back: “What the [expletive] is wrong with you.”
Others went even further, dragging up old rumors and personal jabs. A few tried to lighten the mood-“They got chicken on a stick there?”-but most weren’t laughing.
Behind the social media chaos is a serious and complicated eligibility fight. Chambliss, 23, just wrapped up a stellar season, completing 66.1% of his passes for 3,937 yards and 22 touchdowns while leading Ole Miss to 13 wins and a historic CFP berth. But his college career is now in jeopardy after the NCAA denied his request for a sixth year of eligibility.
The core of the dispute centers on the 2022 season, when Chambliss was at Ferris State. According to Ole Miss, Chambliss was sidelined with “severe, incapacitating medical conditions” and didn’t dress for a single game that year-conditions they argue should qualify him for an extra year. The university didn’t mince words, calling the NCAA’s denial “indefensible.”
But the NCAA sees it differently. In court documents, they argue that Chambliss chose to avoid surgery in 2022 so he could continue playing football, opting for medication instead. From their perspective, that decision means the season counts against his eligibility clock.
Now, with his collegiate future-and potentially millions in NIL money-on the line, Chambliss is heading to court. His legal team is seeking an injunction in Mississippi state court, and the hearing is set for February 12 in Calhoun County, in the very town Kiffin decided to mock online.
For Chambliss, it’s more than just a legal battle-it’s a fight for the right to finish what he started. For Ole Miss, it’s about standing by a player who gave everything on the field. And for Kiffin, well, it’s another reminder that even when he’s gone, he never really leaves the spotlight.